Thursday, October 20, 2016

Welcome! I'm Alla, and I'm so glad you are visiting. I have been blogging about my creative passions since 2011; these days, it's pretty much all about the quilting.

Today's finish is a sampler quilt made from black-white-and-bright BOM blocks. I hosted/taught this BOM last year (September 2015 - August 2016), and made a commitment to the students to stitch it up as soon as I could.

New skills for me:

Wonky/twisted setting for blocks (based on tutorial found at About.com; click ahead to step 3).

Curved piecing on some flying geese in the background (learning about/practicing my curves in this year's BOM).

Quick shot of the reverse, a giant B&W print from the stash of amazing art quilter Jonathan Shannon.

Not sure if the fabrics and the setting managed to break this traditionally-pieced sampler out of its stuffy past, but I like to think that 12-inch star blocks can aspire to a modern sensibility.

Thanks for reading about my quilt!

Now it's your turn: Link up those fabulous finishes here and don't forget to stop by some of the other
finishes--leave them some comment love! Grab the TGIFF button and link back to this post, so your visitors can see other dynamite finishes.

Design wall specifics: two 4 foot x 8 foot pieces of rigid foam insulation, found at my local big-box lumber and building supply store. One side is a silvery mylar, one side is a white plastic; the "foam" looks like a styrofoam product to my untrained eye.

I covered the whole thing with 1 2/3 yards (8 feet) of polyester batting, from the roll at the quilt shop.

Held up very cleverly with blue painter's tape; and by being wedged between the floor and ceiling.

And on the design wall today? A little ol' table runner whose borders need some help.

(I am aware that 64 square feet of design wall is a tiny bit of overkill for a table runner. But I will use its lovely, ginormous surface soon, I promise.)

This table runner is made from three blocks out of last year's black-white-and-bright Block of the Month. I threw it together quickly, to show students an idea of how to use some of their blocks. I also wanted to try out a border idea that I had previewed in 2014--also on a black-and-white quilt.

Upon further review, I was left feeling that my version of the border--which I made narrower due to the size of a table runner vs. a full quilt--was just too darn loud. The black-and-white fabrics I used did not allow for good viewing of the piecing. Plus, they shouted down the lovely blocks in the center. Not good at all.

So, there you have it: a large canvas to give perspective to noisy borders. I'll be replacing some of the fabrics to try and calm things down a bit.

In other news... I will be hosting TGIFF this week. More super excitement brewing!

If you have a FINISH, please come back and join the party on Friday this week. I love to celebrate finishes!!

Friday, October 7, 2016

Last seen during fabric auditions. I showed some of my color ideas to the
recipient, and she gave me carte blanche. As long as I used the
pocket and name tape from the uniform of the Marine being honored, she had no
opinion about the rest--yay, who doesn't love picking fabrics?

This stocking was made using my tutorial. I have had a great time personalizing each stocking I make for a specific recipient, and using special, meaningful materials.

I used part of a sleeve from the uniform to make a bias strip for the toe
detail. I also added batting to the cuff to
make it feel more substantial.

Name obscured for the
family’s sake

I felt so very honored to make an item that will remind the family of their fallen loved one.

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday, hosted this week by Sarah at Georgia Girl Quilts. Happy to have a finish(!) and to check out marvelous, motivating work by others.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

It occurs to me that blogging has not happened lately. I apologize if any of my regular readers have missed this. I've been writing in my journal--not regularly, don't think I'm "cheating" by putting all of my thoughts in writing elsewhere--but I think this places some of my blogging energy on paper, rather than the digital sphere.

What I have not done is replace my blog with an Instagram feed of things I am working on. Even if I manage to post some fabricky porn on Instagram, it will never fill my need to process and share via the written word. That's kinda always been my thing; not gonna change that mode as long as I have the ability to write...

So, I'm pondering again who it is that I blog for: is it just for me? Do I want lots of followers? Will better blogging lead me to fame and fortune as a small business person? (If my small business dreams ever get out of the micro-business realm.) And overall--if I have all these ideas for blog posts floating around in my head (and I DO), why can't I just stick to some sort of schedule and release them into the world like a normal blogger?

Things I have read lately about blogging

Inspire to Thrive: surefire ways to succeed in social media
Just read a piece from them on why your business needs a Facebook page (um, can't say I'll get right on that, but it's probably a good idea I will want to implement. Soon, maybe.)
Coincidentally, the most recent post is titled "What Happened to Blogging and Having a Great Blog?"

Basic Blog Tips: helping you build a better blog
Just their post headlines make me want to read more "what's a landing page and why should I make one for my blog" "why your email open rates have taken a nosedive" "using comments to boost your own blog's traffic"

But then again, I ask myself if my purpose is to build a great blog, or just be my messy, authentic self online. Who has time to curate their persona? Not me, obviously; I can't even write a blog post every week.

Thoughts? Authenticity vs. branding? And how often should I push myself to Just Post Something (Anything) Already?!